#stateviolence

[thenullprophet]

NULL PROPHET TRANSMISSION // FUNCTION OVERRIDE

You were told it was about security. You were told it was about crime.

It was never about either.

The machine does not need proof. It does not require evidence. It only needs parameters.

INPUT: Markings on the skin. OUTPUT: Erasure.

The function is classification. The result is disposal.

If the system can label one group an enemy, it can label another. And another. And another.

The machine does not stop. It only expands.

NULL PROPHET OUT. THE PROGRAM RUNS.

[janedyson4thyear]

Millner, Jacqueline, and Catriona Moore. Contemporary Art and Feminism.

Pg 204

Feminist worlds

Jean luc

In attempting to grapple with how to respond politically to the death drive of neo-liberal global capitalism, French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy urges us to,‘ask anewwhat the world wants of us, and what we want of it, everywhere, in all senses, all overthe world and for the whole world, without (the) capital of the world but with therichness of the world’.1He elaborates:

if the world, essentially, is not the representation of a universe...nor that of a herebelow, but the excess–beyond any representation of anethosor of ahabitus–of astance by which the world stands by itself, configures itself, and exposes itself initself, relates to itself without referring to any given principleor to any determinedend, then one must address the principle of such an absence of principle directly

This demands not that we signify the world, or assign it a proper sense, but that weinvolve ourselves completely with the world:‘it is the extremely concrete and deter-mined task—a task that can only be a struggle—of posing the following question toeach gesture, each conduct, eachhabitusand eachethos: How do you engage theworld?’3Nancy calls on us to‘make worlds’, non-totalising and immanent, throughour everyday being in the world

To underline the importance of aesthetics to politics, Rancière famously said that the real must be fictionalised in order to be thought. https://selforganizedseminar.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/rancic3a8re-jacques-politics-aesthetics-distribution-sensible-new-scan.pdf

Jacques Rancière’s views about the role of aesthetics.Rancière maintains that artworks help shape the social world, that‘the way we createart is intimately bound up with fundamental forms of intelligibility, with material signsand images which describe ways of being, seeing and doing. Art, then, plays a key rolein articulating the distribution of the sensible which governs any given social order

Feminist critiques have also had in their sights the co-option ofthe public by the state, including the use of art—such as more traditionally under-stood‘public art’—for the purpose of aligning the neoliberal agendas of commerceand politics, at times imposing a singular purported‘common good’withoutacknowledging, let alone promoting, counter views

Feminist art practices re-imagining the public have focused on forming and

connecting to disparate and often yet-to-be imagined communities

aspiring to remain open and incomplete;

they attempt to replace official processes and procedures with interpersonal unpre-dictability and risk underpinned by the trust and deep listening that underlines care;

they re-inhabit places and spaces to interrogate embedded narratives and amplify

previously silenced voices

Their collective work entreats feminists to go beyond personal levels of com-fort and move into spaces full of trepidation so as not to let rallying cries era-dicate difference and to listen to the silence that is protest...Without this movement toward uneasiness, toward awkwardness, toward discomfort, fem-inists may contribute to normalizing economic and social injustices as women across difference continue to be subjects and objects of systemic discrimination,economic exploitation, powerlessness, systematic marginalization and stateviolence...we must be open to possibility

https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.massey.ac.nz/doi/full/10.1080/0966369X.2017.1351509

[thefreeblackwomanslibrary]

Join us on the New Moon in Leo, Saturday August 11th at 4.30pm for a special ritual in honor of Black women, girls and femmes. Defend Black Womanhood is happening on August 11th at the corner of Nostrand and Fulton, right by the A train entrance. Please wear pink or white, and be ready to take part in a procession and ritual in honor of Black women, girls and femmes who’ve been victims of state violence, racism and patriarchy. Bring names, photographs, sound makers and altar items. This is a heart based action in honor of Black August and the many lives that have been lost and stolen. 💕

[freeqthamighty]

Woman Witnesses Police Brutality and is Arrested for Her Intervention | #JusticeForRodneka #BlackLivesMatter

IMMEDIATE ACTION STEPS:

LIKE the #JusticeForRodneka page for updates. READ and SHARE Rodneka’s story (use #JusticeForRodneka) or share this article to your networks.

DONATE and SHARE THE DONATION LINK with your networks — www.gofundme.com/rodneka

SHOW UP WEARING WHITE for Rodneka at 9AM at 2700 Tulane Ave, Section H on January 12th, 2018 for her trial date. Check the Facebook page for date changes.

Imagine you’re driving home from work. Expecting an uneventful ride, you’re surprised to see the blinding glare of police lights in front of you. As your eyes adjust to the scene, other things start coming into view.

A baby blanket.

The “slick and shine” of a baby’s head.

A woman who is holding the baby. A police officer who is choking and pulling the hair of the woman holding the baby.

Imagine your basic human decency kicking in, forcing you to intervene. You stop your car in the middle of the street and run over to them, thoughts racing of the potential fate of both woman and baby. You get ahold of the child and hand the child off to a bystander who had asked for them.

“Be human!” you hear yourself calling out repeatedly to the police officer as he stares blankly at you. “Be human!” you hear yourself calling repeatedly as a crowd forms and watches this officer, still with a “debilitating hold” on the woman.

Imagine the woman the police officer is choking exclaims she doesn’t know why this is happening to her, only for the officer to body slam her onto the ground. The crowd yells at her to “stop resisting” and you, having watched the entire episode, beg them to see her humanity, her natural reaction to being choked with a baby in her arms by saying, “she is not resisting”!

Imagine the woman is now face down on the ground, the officer on her back, with his arm around her neck. “You’re choking her!” you scream, only to be met with an amused look from the officer who shouts back, “look, I’m not choking her”. Never mind the small amount of foam discharging from her throat, drops of it seen coming out of the sides of her mouth.

Imagine you’ve tried once, twice, three times now to record the officer. You are less than five feet away from him and the woman he is assaulting. Your full attention is on her safety, even at the expense of your own. Before you notice, other officers, who you thought were on the way to help the woman, tackle you off your feet.

Within seconds, you no longer have to theoretically relate to the woman.

Now, your own Black woman body is against the concrete, handcuffs clamped around your wrists. As you’re dragged to the police car, you plead with a stranger to go to your job — not five minutes away — and tell a friend to come get your car. The stranger refuses to get involved.

You are arrested. You spend the next two nights in jail, not eating for 20 hours. You are unable to access your medical routine for 48 hours and your bail is set at $2500. Imagine for the next few months, you are faced with a series of financially and emotionally stressful court dates on top of the stress and trauma caused by the initial assault by the officer(s).

If you #TrustBlackWomen, then you don’t have to imagine any of this story. This is the reality for New Orleanian Rodneka S. On April 23rd, 2017, Rodneka experienced this ordeal on her way from work (read it in her own words and SHARE on Facebook here).

And she is not alone.

Her case highlights the continued mistreatment and abuse of Black people by law enforcement agents and the ways the system continues to punish and criminalize Black people after they’ve had their rights and bodies violated by agents of the state.

In the United States, when it is the word of a police officer against that of a civilian, the officer’s account is usually taken as truth (this is why, initially, people were so excited about body cameras on police officers). This happens despite the multiple times we’ve seen officers find cover hiding behind the “blue wall of silence”, and the times we’ve seen officers manipulate the law to criminalize others in order to avoid accountability for their crimes.

In 2015, Daniel Holtzclaw, a former Oklahoma City Police Department patrol officer, was convicted of multiple counts of rap­­e, sexual battery and other charges. Holtzclaw had systematically and strategically targeted and violated 13 low-income Black women while on duty. Through gross misuse of power and an even grosser understanding of society’s inability to #TrustBlackWomen, Officer Holtzclaw was able to sexually abuse these women. As the prosecutor on the case, Lori McConnell, stated, “He didn’t choose CEOs or soccer moms; he chose women he could count on not telling what he was doing…He counted on the fact no one would believe them and no one would care.”

These same intersections of race, gender and believability in the United States collide in an exhaustingly familiar way in Rodneka’s case, where she is charged with battery of a police officer and resisting arrest for stopping to help someone else that fateful night.

The charges against Rodneka are equally telling. Somehow, we are expected to believe that this Black woman who was minding her own business coming home from work leapt out of her car unprovoked to assault a police officer.

The story sounds ridiculous to me, but then again, I do not subscribe to notions of Black people’s criminality or violent nature as many still do in the United States and around the world. It is this same narrative of Blackness as violent and uncontrollable (and in need of being controlled) that allowed Officer Darren Wilson to shoot Mike Brown in cold blood, then say he feared for his life. After all, according to Wilson, Brown looked “like a demon”,and had reached into Wilson’s car without reason, punching him in the face, initiating the need to protect himself through lethal violence.

Rodneka joins the list of Black people charged with resisting arrest when making calls for their basic humanity to be considered during arrest. According to her story, Rodneka was close to the officer, but did not initiate contact.

PHOTO CAPTION: #JusticeForRodneka Court Support Team. You can support her directly by donating at www.gofundme.com/rodneka

Yet, when other officers arrived on the scene, she was immediately tackled and arrested. Her call to be treated like a human being was twisted into assault against others, which is too often the case when people who are intimidated by the police assert their rights. This portion of her story reminded me of Earldreka White, a Black woman who was pulled over for a traffic stop then violently arrested and charged with resisting arrest, not for any alleged traffic crime she had committed. In this country, the very existence of Black people is criminalized. The Earldreka’s and Rodneka’s of the world don’t have to do anything in order to be eligible for arrest. It is especially telling in cases in which resisting arrest is the only charge issued.

On January 12th, 2018, Rodneka faces her next court date. This means we have just over a month to rally our communities behind this young woman. Rodneka’s ask is simple — treat her with the human dignity the police officers didn’t accord her. Believe her story. Share her story. And, if you can, show up and let her know she doesn’t have to be the sole author in this story of struggle.

The Movement for Black Lives Matter began when Trayvon Martin was killed. It has since been reduced by mainstream media to the lethal police violence faced by mostly young Black men. However, the Movement for Black Lives has a much more expansive definition of state violence that includes cases like Rodneka’s. In order for #BlackLivesMatter to actually be realized, our lives have to matter while we’re still alive. #BlackLivesMatter is not just a call to mourn our deaths when we’ve been unjustly and often brutally killed — it is a demand for our right to live full lives without fear of violence by individuals or the state from the moment we are born.

Rodneka has one more desperate plea specific to the New Orleans community — if you were filming or simply present the night of the incident on April 27th, 2017, PLEASE REACH OUT to the #JusticeForRodneka campaign at RodnekaStands@gmail.com or through the Facebook page.

Rodneka had this to say about her experiences since that night: “This whole situation has impacted my life greatly in every aspect. The greatest is psychologically as it has shattered my pseudo reality that I am free in 2017. I am certainly not free of harm by law enforcement and I have been exposed to the system that allow this to be. It has also however confirmed to me that there is a community of ppl in my city of New Orleans who look like me that love, work for, and sacrifice for the ppl like me contrary to popular belief. We are not desensitized and we stand for each other and that’s the world I live in. The only thing I regret is that I have not obtained a dash cam to record the events of April 23rd. I wish the lil Sistah believed that she was worth the help. Sometimes I wish I’d never had to witness what I saw but there’s no fixing a problem that is not acknowledged. I think it’s important that we all understand that in the stride to be sane or mentally functional, humans sometimes have to believe notions that aren’t true. Both victims and beneficiaries of abuse. It keeps us functional but it also keeps us prey to the problems we refuse to see before us. The problem now is what happened to me has happened to others and can happen to you. Let’s work on fixing the problem. It’s not so hard when we work together.”

Standing up for or against injustice is often difficult, thankless work. Despite this, Rodneka did her part, alone, on the night of April 23rd, 2017. As a community, let’s make sure she doesn’t have to face her­ next steps alone.

IMMEDIATE ACTION STEPS:

READ and SHARE Rodneka’s story with #JusticeForRodneka or share this article to your networks. LIKE the #JusticeForRodneka page for updates

DONATE and SHARE THE DONATION LINK with your networks — www.gofundme.com/rodneka

SHOW UP WEARING WHITE for Rodneka at 9AM at 2700 Tulane Ave, Section H on January 12th, 2018 for her trial date. Check the Facebook page for date changes.

[rebel-girl-queen-of-my-world]

Repost from @soyouwanttotalkabout • The Trump administration scheduled three federal executions this week. Lisa Montgomery was given a stay of execution on Monday. There is still time to save Dustin Higgs and Cory Johnson. Let’s do everything we can. #abolishthedeathpenalty #capitalpunishment #deathpenalty #dustinhiggs #coryjohnson #lisamontgomery #cruelandunusualpunishment #execution #stateviolence #justice #criminaljustice #criminaljusticereform https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ8uOMGsvTi/?igshid=bgevw9mr7oh9

[wiseintelligent]

😠 #TheBlueKluxKlan Regrann from @theculturespeaks - Sequita Thompson, Stephon Clarks grandmother #thecultutespeaks JUSTICE FOR STEPHON CLARK!! ✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿 #StephonClark #BlackLivesMatter #PoliceState #StateViolence #EnoughIsEnough #Sacramento #SacramentoPolice - #regrann

[trascapades]

🙏🏿⚖💙🎨 #ArtIsAWeapon #BreonnaTaylor is @vanityfair's September 2020 cover story; her portrait beautifully painted by the great @amysherald and her story written by the brilliant @tanehisipcoates, who is also guest editor of this special issue titled "The Great Fire." www.vanityfair.com — Ta-Nehisi Coates Guest-Edits THE GREAT FIRE, a Special Issue — Breonna Taylor’s Beautiful Life, in the Words of Her Mother — An Oral History of the Protest Movement’s First Days — Celebrating 22 Activists and Visionaries on the Forefront of Change Reposted from @vanityfair Presenting Breonna Taylor for Vanity Fair’s September issue, “The Great Fire.” Five months have passed since police killed Breonna Taylor in her own home, a violent crime that our September issue guest editor Ta-Nehisi Coates ascribes to a belief in Black people as a disaster, as calamity. “I don’t know how else to comprehend the jackboots bashing in Breonna Taylor’s door and spraying her home with bullets, except the belief that they were fighting some Great Fire—demonic, unnatural, inhuman.” Coates chose the "The Great Fire" as the theme for the issue, which assembles activists, artists, and writers to offer a portrait of hope in a world where the possibility of a legitimate anti-racist majority is emerging for the first time in American history. “Something is happening,” writes @tanehisipcoates, “and I think to understand it, we must better understand the nature of this Great Fire.” For his cover story, Coates tells Breonna’s story through the words of her mother. Also in the issue: an oral history of the historic days after George Floyd's death; a portfolio of creatives and visionaries who capture the spirit—and urgency—of the moment; director @ava DuVernay's conversation with revolutionary Angela Davis; and much more. Read “The Great Fire” at the link in bio now. Painting by Amy Sherald (@asherald). #ABeautifulLife #JusticeForBreonnaTaylor #StateViolence #PoliceKillings #RacismIsAPublicHealthCrisis #SayHerName #BlackLivesMatter #AmySherald #TaNehisiCoates #BlackBrilliance #TraScapades #ArtIsAWeapon #BlackGirlArtGeeks https://www.instagram.com/p/CERmYKJAXTD/?igshid=l0obrgmxnsvc

[cholapinupla]

- ‪Call and Email Ombudsman Tami.Falconer@cdcr.ca.gov‬ ‪(916)324-5448 Tell her you have a loved one at CTF-central and to STOP THE FIGHTS! You can also call/email your state assembly member/senator. .Reposted from @richiereseda . . . . . .#californiaprison #gladiatorfights #soledad #soledadprison #prisonfights #soledadfights #ctf #cdcr #californiaprisons #massincarceration #stoptheviolence #dogfights #prisoner #soledadstateprison #californiaprisoners #prison #stateviolence - #regrann https://www.instagram.com/p/BuHZgEHABT4/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=yeh1ivj2g8ro

[leresidue]

L’EAU EST LA VIE: THE FIGHT AT STANDING ROCK CONTINUES IN THE BAYOUS OF LOUISIANA

[essencerevealed]

#RepostSave @loudgirlmovement with @repostsaveapp ・・・ Via @thefreeblackwomenslibrary ・・・ Join us on the New Moon in Leo, Saturday August 11th at 4.30pm for a special ritual in honor of Black women, girls and femmes. Defend Black Womanhood is happening on August 11th at the corner of Nostrand and Fulton, right by the A train entrance. Please wear pink or white, and be ready to take part in a procession and ritual in honor of Black women, girls and femmes who’ve been victims of state violence, racism and patriarchy. Bring names, photographs, sound makers and altar items. This is a heart based action in honor of Black August and the many lives that have been lost and stolen. 💕 #stateviolence #misogynoir #abolishpatriarchy #defendBlackwomanhood #niawilson #rekiaboyd #sandrabland #korryngaines #fannielouhamer #meganhockaday #andmanymore #newmoon #bedstuy #brooklyn #freeblackwomenslibrary (at MTA-Nostrand Ave-A & C Lines) https://www.instagram.com/p/BmRk4wGBc3L/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1kwrqsz0rg66v

[civicdirect]

We appreciate the #efforts of @nojusticenopride of #ensuring that #pride is #intersectional and works for #justice dealing with #whitesupremacy, #marginalization, #immigrantdetention, #stateviolence, and other #racialjustice and #economicjustice issues. Conference call coming up this week. More info on #dc #civicaction #center (link in bio). #lgbtq #lgbtpride #lgbtqia #lgbtq

[dombrassey]

BBC: #LiuXiaobo 11-year jail term was handed down in 2009 after he compiled, with other intellectuals, the Charter 08 manifesto. It called for an end to one-party rule and the introduction of multi-party democracy. Mr Liu was found guilty of trying to overthrow the state. He was a pro-democracy figurehead for activists outside mainland China, although many of his compatriots were unaware of his struggles because the authorities rigorously censored news about him. The dissident won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 for his "long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China", but he was not permitted to travel to Norway to accept it. He was the second person to receive the award while in prison - the other was the German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky, who won in 1935 while incarcerated in a Nazi concentration camp. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/40597514 #china #humanrights #liuxiaobo #politicalprisoner #freespeech #democracy #dissident #stateviolence #repression #politicalrepression #prisonhealthcare #statesanctionedviolence #freespeech #nobelprize #riseofchina #dictatorship #tienamensquare #1989 #martyr #censorship #housearrest #legacy #thingstodobefore61 (at Jinzhou, Liaoning, China)

[yosoylamonstruita]

This makes me want to cry a whole damn lot, because our state is waging a war against its own people. And it also gives me chills how much our police and surveillance state functions like a Latin American military junta government. Yes I said that, but as a researcher and person intimately familiar, with a great knowledge of how these systems work, I will say that, my not saying that's means I am implicitly encouraging this injustice and state sanctioned violence to happen. Also the miscarriage of justice this weekend is also so heartbreaking. It makes me wonder when will #blacklivesmatter enough to convict members of the state who killed unarmed innocent people without cause? When will survivors matter enough that we can hold perpetrators accountable and stop calling sexual assault cases "he said she said" cases? When will we believe and support survivors? If it is not clear to you that the State is waging a war against its own people and the system is designed to specifically protect the lives, well being and interests of a select few masculine (usually white) wealthy, able bodied, Cis gendered straight people, at the expense of everyone else then... You need to get your head out of the sand and educate yourself and realize that your unwillingness to acknowledge this means that YOU are part of the problem. Finally, to people who say I should ignore the politics of those who wish to oppress me, take away my rights and do not want me and people like me to exist, I say no. It is my right to say to engaging with people who remind me of the men who sexually abused me, who want to deport my friends and their families, who want to take away our rights and freedoms and further marginalize us. I spent too many years being quiet and afraid to be quiet and stand by now, watching this happen and not have a part in ensuring that these stories are told, we need to #saytheirnames until #BlackLivesMatter. #philandocastile #stateviolence #policebrutality #nobansnoraids #nobansnoraidsnowalls #supportsurvivors @the_arab_activists @mixedpresent #humanrights (en Washington, District of Columbia)

[stophatingwomensociety-blog]

Repost and words from @nosmalltalk_: "Today marks one year since Sarah Reed died in Holloway Prison; where she was held after defending herself from sexual assault, without access to medication. Her family are still awaiting answers. If you are not familiar with her story, the link is in my bio. The Sarah Reed Campaign for Justice is commemorating this day by asking that people share her story on every platform available. Follow @justice4slreed on Twitter. Support @INQUEST_ORG. Challenge austerity cuts which slash essential services for people with mental health. Challenge police brutality and state violence. Demand justice. #SayHerName #Justice4SarahReed #stateviolence #blmuk #sarahreed #hollowayprison #austeritykills #mentalhealth #blacklivesmatter #policebrutality #campaign"

[afribean]

Sunday #CookOut #Convo ~ Black Lives Matter and the danger of feeding a machine based on Death & the disruption of the nuclear family (as clearly stated in their mission statement)

www.afribean.com

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Your children have to be next in line on the #SayHisName or #SayHerName hashtags for conversations and funding to be achieved by the #BLM movement

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We look at the Founder, the fundings and the supports including political moves to maintain this movement in the middle of real Black people and not yet shattered Black lives

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#patrissecullors #blm✊🏾 #blacklivesmatter #blacklivesmatteruk #policebrutality #stateviolence #control